Falling Fast
by Laurentius
Summary: Amy and Dan have invited Ian and Natalia over to the mansion to celebrate Christmas! Things start to go wrong when Dan and Natalia start fighting over every little thing, and Amy has a hunch something disastrous is about to happen but she keeps getting distracted by Ian to follow up on it.
1. Chapter 1

**This story takes place a few years after the clue hunt. Amy is 16, Ian 17, and Dan and Natalie, 13. This is not the first time their families have celebrated special occasions together and they are slowly becoming better friends. All characters belong to the authors. Please let me know if I should continue it! Enjoy!**

Ian couldn't believe his eyes. She was sitting in the control room, her head buried in a book, hair in a bun wearing an old Yale University sweatshirt, in leggings and argyle leg warmers, and she couldn't have looked lovelier.

Her back was to him so she didn't notice his silhouette framed in the doorway when she glanced up to looks at the monitors surrounding the room, checking for who-knows-what like she had been for weeks. So he didn't move; just took in the image of her enjoying herself and her book and her cup of hot chocolate. For a moment he imagined himself walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek.

He blushed and silently chastised himself for thinking those thoughts. He was a Kabra, and should _not _be thinking those thoughts; especially about Amy.

"Amy," he said clearing his throat, his cheeks flaming. "Dinner is ready and Dan and Nat are very close to killing each other so I would recommend you come quickly."

She turned around at the sound of his voice her eyes taking a moment to adjust to his dark silhouette in the bright door way. She smiled at him, any trace of her shyness erased from years of practice.

"Just give me a few more minutes; I'm almost done this chapter."

He smiled to himself as she turned back to her book and buried herself back into whatever world she was exploring.

Pausing, he allowed himself to see how absurd this picture was. Here he was with Amy Cahill, in a control room covered in monitors that tracked every room and every blade of grass outside, a week before Christmas, in her house. A few years ago he would have gotten rid of her for good if he had the chance, and now he was about to celebrate Christmas with her and her brother, not for the first time, either.

Instead of leaving the control room like he should have, he walked deeper into the screen-filled room and examined them one by one.

"What are you looking for, Amy?" he asked as she placed her bookmark in her book and set it off to the side. "You spend all of you time in here now."

She sighed. "Nothing, I guess. It was just a hunch and now it's turned into paranoia."

"Well if you think it's something, it must be. I highly doubt its paranoia." His own voice surprised him. _Did I really just say that? _

She blushed. "Well, um, thanks."

He stood there for a moment watching her as her eyes traced the floor then dart up to meet his. _Not all of her shyness is gone, _he thought, his lips spreading into a smirk.

They stood there for a moment, neither one saying anything. Ian could feel his cheeks burning as the silence spread on between them.

Amy's eyes darted away, her cheeks flaming too, and he stuttered "I should probably get down there…"

"Yeah, I'll be right down," Amy whispered at the floor and waited until the door closed behind him to finally breathe out a shuddering breath as she leaned against the control panel for support.


	2. Chapter 2

Dinner was a pain as always as Nat and Dan fought the entire time. Natalie and Ian were only here for a few weeks, and apparently Dan felt the need to get all of the yearly fighting out now.

"Natalie, why do you have to eat with you pinkies out like that? You look like a snob… opps you already are one," he sneered.

"_Dan,"_ Amy whispered, and by the thunk and following grunt from Dan, kicked him under the table.

Natalie just smoothed down her already perfect black hair, tucked it behind her ear, and kept eating, ignoring Dan's lame attempt to get her angry.

Nellie apparently wasn't listening to any of the conversation, but rather was jamming to the new album her favourite band had just put out, all the while shoveling food into her mouth as fast as humanly possible.

Amy sighed. _Why can't family dinners go smoothly, especially this near Christmas? _

She looked up from her dinner plate only to catch Ian's eyes darting away from her.

_Weird, _she thought.

Her gaze settled on the snow storm blowing outside, the snowflakes falling fast. _That's exactly how I feel, _she thought watching the snowflakes whip by the window. _Like I'm being blown in a million different directions and I can't see where I'm headed. _

"Amy, are you alright?"

She looked up to see Ian's dark gaze trained on her, worry replacing the usual sarcasm in his eyes.

"Um ye-yeah," she whispered, silently cursing. Her stutter only ever came back when she was nervous, and she should _not _be nervous around him.

He gave her a funny look, as if he was confused about something, then went back to eating his dinner.

All of a sudden Natalie yelled out "OW!" and everyone at the table—including Nellie, who's music was so loud Amy could hear it from the other end of the table—jumped out of their seats.

"DAN KICKED ME!" she yelled.

"She started it," he mumbled.

"Dan, Natalie," Ian said sternly, he kind demeanor disappearing as quickly as it had come over the past few days. "I think it's time you went to your separate corners of the house."

Dan looked like he was about to protest, and Natalie too, but Ian glared at them, and they both decided that it wasn't worth the repercussions to take him on at the dinner table.

Both of them slunk off to their rooms.

"Where are the little brats going?" asked Nellie as she pulled out one of her ear buds.

Ian sighed. "They are going away because apparently they don't want to get along today," Amy informed Nellie.

"Meh, oh well," she replied sticking her music back in her ears.

Dinner was awkwardly silent after that and Amy kept her eyes trained on her dinner plate. The sound of the snowstorm outside filtered its way into the dining room filling the silence of the sound of the wind, and the cold leeching its way through the walls, freezing her fingers and toes even though she was well covered in sweaters.

For some reason the butterflies in her stomach did not want her meeting Ian's gaze, much to the disagreement of her eyes. She wanted to kick herself; she should be over this by now. This whatever it was that made her stutter come back .

Ian cleared his plate and brought it to the kitchen to be washed later.

"I, um, I'm going to head off to bed, Amy. I am, um, very tired tonight," he moved to place his hand on her shoulder then decided against it and let it drop to his side. She hadn't seen, much to his relief.

"Oh, okay," she said looking up at him from her place at the table. "Have a g-goodnight, then."

"You too." He left and Amy went back to her dejected dinner plate. Deciding it wasn't worth it, she dropped it off in the kitchen and made her way to the control room.

Nellie, sitting at the table all alone, smiled to herself. "On, Ian," she whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

Amy lay in her bed in her flannel pj's, trying to figure out what had been bothering her for the past few weeks. She kept feeling as if something was wrong, something off, something about to go horrible, terribly, wrong. But her mind kept wandering to Ian when he had first arrived at her house.

It was three weeks before. Him and Natalie had just flown in from wherever they had been staying. He was cranky and rude and not very happy, but that was who he was. That was what Amy had expected. He was never over the top kind to her. Ever.

But that had changed slowly. He was being nicer to her. Like actually nice. And it was weird.

She tried to shake it off and decided to go back to her book. She had recently discovered a fantastic series and was working her way through them as fast as she could.

But she was too restless to read. Her mind kept wandering to the worry that was buried under everything else that was going on but kept bubbling up to the surface. There was something wrong, and she knew it. She paced her floor listening to the sounds of the storm outside and tried to clear her mind enough to fall asleep, but nothing was working.

"I give up," she whispered, and glancing at the clock—it was 1:30 in the morning—decided to make her way up to the control room.

...

"I give up," Ian said to the walls of his guest room. "Aggggggggg" he exclaimed, and chucked a pillow at the wall. He couldn't get the thought of her out of his head no matter how hard he tried. Nothing worked, and it was driving him mad.

All of a sudden he heard a door closing, and someone walking down the hall. Panicked he jumped into his bed, crawled under the covers and pretended to be asleep, but the footsteps trailed past his bedroom and kept going.

Confused, he dragged himself out of bed and padded his way over to the door. He heart thrummed in his throat at the thought of who could be wandering the halls at this hour and his mind was hoping for one particular person.

He turned the cold doorknob as silently as he could and peered out of the tiny crack. A flash of red hair caught his eye right before it disappeared around the corner.

"Amy," he breathed, his heart leaping at the thought of her.

He knew exactly where she was going.

Throwing on an old sweater and socks, he snuck out of the guest room and followed her up to the control room.

...

She checked all of the screens for the millionth time.

_Nothing. _Her heart fell. She knew, just knew, that something was wrong. It was driving her crazy.

She picked up her book, and opened it to the page she was on, then closed it and looked up at the screens. Sinead had been teaching her how to use all the technology and cameras etc. so she was pretty good at finding things that were askew. But this was bothering her. And the fact that she couldn't focus on anything was even worse, considering that her main distraction was a _Kabra. _

The room was dark, but the screens were bright which allowed her to scribble notes in her notebook. She wrote down everything she noticed, thought ,and pondered, drawing arrows and notes in the margin, connecting anything she thought might even remotely be related when all of a sudden she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped out of her chair and landed in a fighting stance. Ian was backed away with his hands up as if to say _I'm not trying to hurt you, _his eyes shocked and pleading for her to relax.

"Oh, Ian, I'm sorry. You scared me." She relaxed outwardly, her arms dropping to her side, but her insides curled themselves into knots and her blood ran hot in her veins.

"No, no it was my fault," he said, his British accent like silk in the quiet room. "I thought you had heard me."

"Oh, um…no. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I guess I was too caught up in…" her voice trailed off as she glanced at her notebook.

He stepped closer until he was looking over her shoulder at the desk where her notebook lay.

"What are you working on?" he asked, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"I—uh," Amy stuttered. He was too close for her brain to properly function. He was so close that all she had to do was lean in a tiny bit and their lips would touch….

A few seconds passed and his dark eyes caught hers, holding her gaze for a moment. His hand came up to rest on the side of her face and as if reading her mind, he drew her lips to his. His lips were warm on hers and felt nothing like she could have ever imagined. She thought her insides might melt just from that simple touch. But it was a fleeting kiss, and it was over all too soon.

Without another word, he left the room, leaving Amy stunned, watching him disappear, her heart in knots, and her insides melted away.


	4. Chapter 4

She tried to go back to working, but her mind kept wandering back to a very particular Kabra, and eventually she gave up and went back to her room. She stopped in front of his door, for what reason, she didn't know, and kept walking until she got to her room.

Closing the door, she leaned against it and paused. "Ian Kabra kissed me," she whispered, her fingers resting on her lips. "And I liked it."

She smiled to herself and crawled into her bed.

...

He made his way as fast as he could back to his bedroom, hoping no one noticed him practically running down the halls, or worse, the giant smile he wore the entire way.

He slipped into his room as quietly as possible and flopped down on the bed, his smile still plastered on his face.

"I did it," he whispered to himself. "Finally."

He fell asleep with the smile still on his face, and slept soundly for the first time since got there.

...

Amy sat at breakfast surrounded by her noisy family members as Jonah, Sinead, Ted and Ned had all arrived the night before at varying times of the morning. They were all yelling and laughing and talking as loud as they possibly could.

Natalie and Dan across from each other and kept throwing the other nasty glares. She wondered what had gone on between them.

"Hey Ian!" exclaimed Jonah, and at the sound of his name, Amy perked up. She tried to catch his eyes, but he wouldn't even look at her.

_What? _She thought, thoroughly confused.

Grabbing cereal and milk he picked a spot in the other end of the table, as far from Amy as he could get. He didn't even look at her.

No one noticed though. They probably all thought it was typical Kabra behaviour, but it stung Amy.

He spent the rest of breakfast talking to everyone but her, and she spent it with her head down focusing solely on her plate.

As fast as she could the moment she had a chance, she disappeared and decided to make her way up to the control room rather than her bedroom. Maybe hanging around the security system would make her feel better.

Sinead found her not too long after.

She didn't say anything, but rather walked over and sat down beside her and began running tests on all the systems. It made Amy feel better even if Sinead didn't talk at all.

"I don't want to talk about it," Amy said, after a few awkwardly long seconds in which Sinead watched her out of the corner of her eye.

"Fine. But can you at least tell me why there was enough tension between you and the Kabra boy at the breakfast table to cut with a pair of scissors?

Amy groaned. She hated the Sinead was and Ekat sometimes.

"Was it that obvious?" she asked.

Sinead just looked at her.

"Nothing," Amy sighed. "It was nothing."

It was obvious Sinead didn't believe her, but she knew that it was frivolous to keep trying to get it out of her. She went back to her work, and Amy sat there, dejectedly staring at her note book full of scribbles.

...

He ignored her for the rest of the day and left the room whenever she walked in. It stung Amy every time but eventually she accepted it.

Deciding that there were more important things to worry about such as the Christmas presents she still had to wrap for everyone considering Christmas was only a few days away, she poured her anger into that.

Her presents were perfectly wrapped within an hour and when she finally sat back to admire her work; she was very impressed. A few trips down the stairs and all her presents were stacked neatly under the tree.

She had only taken a few moments to admire her decoration job, and the picture of all the presents under the tree, when she heard a smooth British accent behind her.

"I'm not in the mood, Ian." She said.

"Amy, what's wrong?" he questioned quietly.

"What's wrong?" she exclaimed. "What's wrong is that you have been giving me the cold shoulder all day and ignoring me every chance you get!"

He looked down. "I did that for a reason," he whispered at the floor.

"And what, may I ask, was that reason?" she shocked herself at how cold her voice sounded considering her insides felt like they were on fire.

He mumbled something at his feet, his eyes never meeting hers.

"Ian?"

"If I even looked at you," he said, his eyes meeting hers and the intensity in them shocking Amy, "they would know."

"Know what?" she whispered quietly.

"Know how I feel about you," he whispered back, finally looking away.

Amy stood there, shocked, her heart hammering in her chest, but Ian quietly shuffled out of the room, leaving her in a daze.


	5. Chapter 5

She looked for him all day, but couldn't seem to find him no matter where she looked. It wasn't until she was sitting in the control centre that he found her.

He came up behind her and hesitated to place his hands on her shoulders, but in a moment of courage rested them on her soft sweater as she faced the monitors. She started at his touch but relaxed into it almost unconsciously.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, her back still to him.

At that, she turned around to face him. Her eyes were wide, her lips slightly parted. "Ian, why in Gideon's name would you be sorry?"

He looked at her; maybe he had read her wrong. "I thought you… were scared off by what I said," he looked down. "That you didn't feel the same why I did."

"I'm sorry I kissed you," he breathed.

His eyes were bright as he looked at her, and so full of regret that Amy couldn't stand it anymore. She reached up and pulled the collar of his silken Armani shirt down until their eyes were level; Ian had to crouch down on his knees.

"Don't _ever _be sorry about that," she whispered, ferocity that he had never seen before burning in her eyes. "You were right, Ian." She blushed and looked down. "You were always right."

Memories of Korea flashed thorough his mind and he flinched.

"Will you ever forgive me?" he whispered, his British accent slipping over the vowels like a river smoothing the rough stones in the water.

Amy placed her hands on either side of his face, her long fingers slipping into his longer-than-normal dark brown hair.

"Y-yes," she whispered, her stutter slipping out and stammering in time with her racing heart.

He leaned forward until their foreheads were touching and watched her eyes. Seeing no resistance he leaned the rest of the way in, and Amy's heart thrummed in her throat as his lips pressed to hers.

She breathed in the scent of him; the freshly washed shirt, the cologne that made her heart melt inside of her, the minty scent of his shampoo.

He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. "I love you Amy, and I've loved you for a very long time. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that."

She could tell that he meant it. Never had she seen such raw emotion in his carefully guarded eyes, and it melted her insides to the consistency of warm chocolate.

This time she leaned forwards and bridged the space between the two of them. Ian was waiting for it and deepened the kiss before Amy had a chance to register what was happening. She sighed against his lips and he ran his hands up her sides to rest on the nape of her neck. His lips moved against hers, his tongue teasingly dancing across her lips, and he pulled her closer until she was almost sliding off the chair.

"Ian, I—" Amy began, but was cut off as the door to the control room burst open.

Dan barged in. "Amy, there you are I've been—WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WHY ARE YOU KISSING THE COBRA?" he exclaimed taking in the scene, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

"D-dan," Amy stuttered her face flaming red.

"Never mind, I don't want to know, I just came to tell you dinner is ready." He stormed out leaving the door wide open behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

Dinner was awkwardly silent and while Ian and Amy hadn't gone in together, it seemed like Dan had told everyone at the dinner table what he had walked in on.

Everyone kept shooting questioning, and in Natalie's case, thankful, glances at the two of them. I guess everyone had been waiting for this.

Sinead and Hamilton kept glancing at each other when they thought no one was watching, and it made Amy feel a little bit better knowing that her and Ian were not the only ones together. Christmas morning was going to be fun.

Nellie kept smiling at Amy like she knew that truth, and considering it was Nellie, she probably did. She hoped she was happy for her.

As soon as it was over, and no one was watching, Ian took Amy's hand, and led her down the hall. He stopped just outside his door and took both of her hands. "Come with me, Amy," he whispered, resting his forehead on hers.

"I-I-Ian," she stuttered and cursed herself inwardly; that was always her tell for when she was nervous.

"Hey, what's wrong?" his voice was silky smooth, his eyed hooded.

"I-I'm-I don't think…" she looked down.

"If I told you that we will only go as far as _you _feel ready for, will that make you feel better?"

She felt as if a weight had been lifted off her chest.

"Yes," she breathed.

He quietly opened the door and led her in, closing it behind him.

...

They were wrapped up in each other when the light poured through the window the next morning.

His arm was wrapped around her, warm through the material of her sweater. She felt him breath as the silk material of his shirt slipped against her back. His lips trailed against her neck and she felt butterflies flutter in her stomach.

"We should go downstairs," she whispered, barely getting the words out.

Ian groaned. "I don't want to," he said rolling her underneath him so he was on top of her and his arms were on either side of her.

She laughed and he smiled, his eyes lighting up. "I love it when you laugh."

She blushed and he kissed her cheeks. "Let's go," she laughed as he pressed butterfly kisses to the soft skin on her neck.

...

They weren't the last ones down. Sinead and Hamilton came down last, Sinead in one of his old shirts, and smiles on both of their faces; they couldn't take their eyes off of each other.

Dan glowered at Amy from across the room. She made a mental note to talk to him later.

Christmas presents were exchanged. Amy gave Ian a beautiful watch and Dan gave Natalie a package of socks. Amy got the brand new computer she had been dying for since hers had craped out.

Ian turned to her when no one was watching and placed a beautiful silver necklace around her neck and she smiled so wide, she practically glowed.

But something still felt off to Amy. Her anxiety levels were getting worse and worse until she was holding back tears of panic.

It wasn't until Jonah came in and announced that there was something wrong in the garage, that Amy's suspicions were confirmed. She shot Ian a worried glace. He looked blankly back at her.

Johan dragged all of them to the garage. Amy felt ready to explode. Everyone around her was bouncing up and down with _anticipation? _Amy was sure she was reading them wrong.

"Amy, Dan, there is something wrong." Jonah proclaimed, and Amy felt ready to explode.

He swung the doors wide and inside were two brand new cars.

Amy's jaw dropped and Dan whooped in the back of the crowed. "So," Johan began, "I know for a fact that you guys only have one crappy car, and I also know that you, Amy, just got your licence, and Dan, you just got your learners permit. I figured you guys could use a few new vehicles."

He was beaming as Dan tackled him in a hug and ran out to go sit in his new car. Amy was still standing there shell-shocked as everyone watched her.

"So _this _is why I've been freaking out for the last few weeks! How did you get them in here?" she demanded. Ian had made his way behind her and rested his hands on her waist as if for moral support.

Jonah smiled and glanced at Sinead who was being hugged from behind by Hamilton. "I had some help."

"Sinead!?" Amy exclaimed. "You helped him!"

"Someone had to put fake footage in the control room cameras because you spent all you time in there. That's what I was doing when I was in there with you, and I was terrified you were going to figure it out." She smiled shyly. "I hope you're not mad."

"I'm not. More relieved than anything. I thought something was seriously wrong. But how did you move them in and out when I went in there?"

"Sinead altered the footage and Nellie and I drove them around the corner every time we thought you would go in."

She looked at Nellie who beamed at her. She just shook her head.

Ian squeezed her hips. "Hey," he whispered into her hair, "Better than you thought, huh?"

She smiled. "Way better."

Everyone walked out to go check out the new cars but Amy and Ian stayed back for a few minutes.

"What's wrong?" Ian asked noticing how pale Amy seemed.

"I really have to go talk to Dan."

"Everything will be okay. I promise."

"Yeah?"

"Of course," he whispered, and kissed the top of her head.

...

"Dan," she began.

"Don't Amy," he said. "I don't care what you and the Cobra do, it's none of my business.

"No, it's not," she replied and that made him stop in his tracks. "But why are you so angry about it?"

He looked at her. "Because I saw what he did to you before and—and I don't want to see it happen again."

Saying that seemed to break something in him and he collapsed onto the couch as the Korea memories surfaced in both of them.

"He won't, Dan, and you don't need to worry about me. He's not my only heart break, you know," she said elbowing him in the side at the reference to her break up with Evan in which she cried for a week straight.

"Are you sure, Amy?"

"No, but I have a pretty good reason to believe that he would never do it again." She smiled at the thought of last night.

"Besides," said Sinead as she waltzed into the room, "we've all seen the way he looks at her. He will never break her heart."

She smiled and leaned against the wall and Amy turned bright red. Hamilton came up and wrapped his arms around her and she giggled and dragged him off somewhere else.

"Okay," grumbled Dan, but something had changed in him. Maybe he had accepted it.

"Better?" asked Amy.

"I guess," he replied.

"Why don't you go driving with Nellie?"

"Yeah?"

"Go for it," she replied and smiled as he bounded off to go find his driving guide.

Ian walked in just as Dan bounded out. He cocked and eyebrow at Amy but she just smiled.

"All better?" he asked, a look of worry tinging his warm, amber eyes.

"All better," she whispered pulling him down and meeting his lips with hers.

"Bed time?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Bed time," she replied smiling.

...

**So that's it guys. I hoped you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear what you thought so let me know!**


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